A study has found the two campuses of Arkansas Tech University have an estimated annual economic impact of more than $219 million on the communities in their immediate service areas.

Dr. Julie Trivitt, clinical assistant professor in the University of Arkansas Sam M. Walton College of Business, and Dr. Robert C. Brown, professor of economics and president at Arkansas Tech University, utilized standards from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and the statistical data report generated by the Arkansas Tech accounting office to compile their report.

Three categories of economic impact — expenditures by the university, student spending and visitors to campus — were used to estimate the impact Arkansas Tech makes on the local economy.

The fall 2012 economic impact study by Trivitt and Brown is a follow-up to a similar report they prepared in fall 2008.

The updated study finds that the main campus of Arkansas Tech University in Russellville makes an estimated annual economic impact of $201.1 million on Pope, Yell and Johnson counties.

That accounts for between 17 and 20.8 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the three-county region.

Trivitt and Brown added a component to their fall 2012 study that also analyzed the economic impact of Arkansas Tech-Ozark Campus on its service area.

The study found that Arkansas Tech-Ozark Campus makes an estimated annual economic impact of $18.2 million on the Franklin County economy. That figure accounts for 7.6 percent of that county’s GDP.

“Arkansas Tech University takes an active role in promoting the economic development of our region,” Brown, who has served as Arkansas Tech president since 1993, said. “The activities of the university, our students and those who visit our campuses make a significant annual contribution to the continued growth and prosperity of our local economies.

“However, it is our commitment to provide each student with the tools necessary to persist to graduation that will make the greatest long-term impact on the fiscal health of our region. An educated work force is an integral component of attracting new industry. The degrees that are produced at Arkansas Tech today will benefit our region for generations to come.”

Arkansas Tech University has 10,950 students during the fall 2012 semester — 8,917 on the main campus in Russellville and 2,033 at Arkansas Tech-Ozark Campus.

Enrollment at Arkansas Tech has grown by 158 percent since 1997. Arkansas Tech has established a new institutional enrollment record in each of the last 14 years.

“While the primary goal of any university is to provide students with the skills and knowledge needed in a dynamic economy, the scale and scope of modern schools have an immediate impact on the local economy and make it impossible to consider education policies without their economic implications,” wrote Trivitt in the conclusion of the fall 2012 study. “Any financial or social policies that are good for higher education will result in economic growth for the local economy and any policies that reduce the demand for higher education will be painful for the local economy. As economies become more integrated and multipliers shrink for many industries, a university that brings many students and visitors to a physical campus where they spend money in a local economy may be an advantage to local economy development.”

I simply don't believe the things that are being inferred by this story. "Economic impact" is an entirely different concept from direct income to the local economy, and most don't make that distinction by a casual reading of the story.

This is a distortion of the truth.

The school is an institution based almost entirely on the ability to borrow from the government, so based on the health of the economy, the source of funds for the institution could completely dry up overnight.

Taxpayer support for an institution that generates no tangible product is not the best use of taxpayer dollars when we so desperately need manufacturing to increase the money available to support the economic growth of the area, is a misguided and misappropriated extrapolation.

Don't let those who have a vested interest in the income of the institution deceive you with 'buzzwords'. I would like to see the figures on how much money is directly generated for the local economy. This will be vastly different from the "economic impact".